NEW YORK—The PKF hotelexperts group, a global hospitality consulting company, has established its U.S. headquarters in New York under the management of Baron Ah Moo and Channing Henry. The announcement was made by the firm’s Global CEO Michael Widmann.
The PKF hotelexperts group traces its roots back to New York in 1927, when William .J. Forster (of Pannell Kerr Forster) created the global standard for accounting and benchmarking—the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI)— which is still in use today. Currently, the PKF hotelexperts group has 14 offices worldwide, with more than 100 consultants providing advisory services, including feasibilities studies, valuations and appraisals, operator selection, project development, asset management, financing and investment, and strategic advice.
In addition, the PKF hotelexperts group includes PKF tourism experts, focusing on master plans for regional tourism infrastructure, and PKF living experts, which advises on serviced living concepts (membership clubs, student and senior living, and serviced residential). PKF hotelexperts cooperates closely with the New York-based accounting firm PKF O’Connor Davies, which adds tax, accounting and corporate finance solutions to its real estate & hospitality expertise, creating a holistic suite of service offerings for clients unlike anything else in the market.
“We are eager to re-engage the market with an office in New York, fortified with exceptional new U.S. leadership working in collaboration with our extraordinary talent around the world,” Widmann said. “Baron Ah Moo and Channing Henry are a seasoned and dynamic leadership team with profound experience in hotel development, investment and consulting. They bring intense creativity to their work, challenging status quo advice with innovative ideas and practical solutions.”
Ah Moo, whose experience includes managing a $500-million private portfolio of leisure real estate in Vietnam as CEO of Indochina Hotels and Resorts, and Henry, who recently developed a Proper hotel in Los Angeles and the master plans for numerous projects in the Southern U.S., Baja California and Costa Rica, will serve as co-leaders of the New York office of PKF hotelexperts. They bring significant transactional and hands-on experience in the boutique and resort development field as well as extensive consulting success to PKF’s U.S. practice. Their combined experience on projects in the U.S., Mexico, Central America and Asia provide them with insight into the full development cycle, from market analysis to deal structure and execution.
“Our growing team will carry on the traditions of PKF’s advisory and deep-rooted market research with further insights for our clients into the development and investment process as a whole,” said Ah Moo.
Henry added, “PKF created the standard for benchmarking, accounting and consulting in the hospitality realm. Today, we carry our tradition forward, and with headquarters in New York and longtime presence of our team members in Southern California and Florida, the new PKF U.S. operations re-enters the North American market with a meaningful ramp-up strategy and an inventive approach.”
PKF has more than 200 member firms in 400 locations in over 100 countries. The U.S. office of PKF hotelexperts opens in partnership with PKF O’Connor Davies, a major accounting firm headquartered in New York.
